Bob Stevens Obituary 1935- 2019

Robert Leland Stevens
1935 - 2019

On September 24, 2019 at home in North Logan, Utah, Robert (Bob)
Leland Stevens, age 84, passed peacefully from this life through the veil to continue his journey.  His devoted wife, Ann, his high school sweetheart, was by his side holding his hand as he departed – sure to be greeted by his family and loved ones that passed on before him.

Bob was born February 24, 1935 in Morgan, Utah – the first born and only son of Golden Glen and Rhea Olive (Drummond) Stevens.  Bob spent the first six months of his life in Devils Slide, Utah and then moved to Croydon with his parents where he lived for the next four and half years.  In 1940 he moved with his family to Ogden, Utah where he attended the first grade before uprooting again to Nampa, Idaho.  Bob lived in Nampa long enough to attend the second through the fourth grades before his family moved back to Devils Slide, Utah where Bob lived his formative years until he graduated from Morgan High School.
Bob first met his future wife and love of his life, Isabelle Ann Shaw, in 1949.  Bob played the cornet in band and there was a clarinetist sitting behind him that kept kicking the back of his chair.  Bob liked the way she looked and so it began.

After Bob graduated high school in 1953, he enlisted in the Army and spent the next two years serving in Germany.

Upon Bob’s return from service, he and his high school sweetheart, Ann, were married for time and all eternity in the Logan, Utah temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on July 14, 1955.

A little over a year after marriage, their first daughter, Isabelle Kim, was born in August 1956. Shortly after Kim’s six-week checkup, Bob and Ann packed all of their worldly possessions and with Kim, moved to Seattle, Washington where Bob began his career with Boeing. Bob started out as a layout template worker and over the next 39 years he became a mechanical engineer, a propulsion research specialist traveling the country testing jet engines and ending his career as the lab resource manager for engineering laboratories.  He retired early with a ‘golden handshake’ in 1995.

During his tenure at Boeing his family continued to grow with the addition of his son, Thomas Glen in April 1961 and second daughter, Amy Rachelle in May 1968.

Over the years Bob and Ann lived in Kent, Washington where they raised their family, Poulsbo, Washington, Allyn, Washington, building and living in a dream home on the hillside of Garden City, Utah overlooking Bear Lake, and finally settling in North Logan, Utah.

Bob served faithfully in many callings in the church and also served a two-year service mission with Ann at the Bremerton, Washington store house and dry-pack cannery.

Bob also found himself on the HOA of everywhere they lived and the secretary of the Bear Lake Water Company where he was awarded the Office Person of The Year in 2012 by the Rural Water Association of Utah. He faithfully served his community wherever he went.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents, Glen and Rhea, his nephew Michael Johnson, and a great-grandson Kaleb Ashley.

Bob is survived by his beloved wife Ann, his children Kim Welsch (Keith), Tom Stevens (Penilee), Amy Summers (John), 21 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren.

To some he was known as Bishop Stevens.  To others he was known as Patriarch Stevens.  For a while he was even known as ‘The Muddled Male’ in Rich County, Utah and beyond.  To us, his family, he was known as Bob, Pop, Uncle, and Grandpa.  But to all, he was known as friend.  He freely gave of his time and talents, of which he had many, and served anyone in need.  He made all of us feel like we were his favorite.

We love and miss you, Pop!  Until we meet again…

Bob chose to remain as unassuming in death as he was in life and requested there be no public viewings or funeral.  Instead, there will be a graveside service on Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 12:00 pm at the South Morgan, Utah cemetery - 335 S State St, Morgan, UT 84050

In lieu of flowers, please donate to your favorite charity.  For those of you that knew Bob well, enjoy some Peanut M&M’s® in his memory.

https://www.allenmortuaries.net/obituaries/Robert-Stevens-28/#!/Obituary

Bob Stevens 1935 - 2019

On September 24, we lost a wonderful man who was known to RCTonline readers as the Muddled Male and to those in Rich County as a man who gave quiet service in the church and community and who made everyone feel loved and appreciated.  He was beloved.  Bob Stevens' formal obituary will be available on October 8, but we thought we'd reprise one of our favorite columns.  This made me laugh and then made tears come to my eyes as I will miss him with everyone else in town.

The Gaunlet Thrown

By Bob Stevens, The Muddled Male

        It is one thing to be outed.  It is another to be outed by a friend.  When I first began reading last week’s Unmuddled Mathematician I assumed that the entire article would be a safe discussion of the Levi pants dress-code of our era, a subject with which I am quite familiar.  Granted I am of a much earlier era than my friend the professor, but at the school where I attended, and the era during which I attended, Levi pants where the required dress code of every boy in the entire school.  The professor also remembered correctly that the pant cuffs had to be rolled up, two rolls as I remember, so that the inner color would show as a light colored stripe at the bottom of each leg to contrast with the natural dark blue color of the outside of the jeans.  It was important, though that the stitching along the bottom of each pant leg was hidden, thus the requirement for two rolls in each cuff.  Moreover, we did not wear baggy jeans.  And we didn’t even know what skinny jeans were, having never even heard the word.  In the vernacular of Goldilocks, our jeans had to be neither too baggy nor too skinny; but just right.  A very important requirement was that once such a pair of jeans was purchased it was verboten to wash them.  While the youth of this day pay big bucks to buy their jeans pre-faded and pre-torn, ours could never show any signs of fading and/or wear, or we would have to abandon them for a new pair.  When our jeans became either faded or worn we gave them to our mother so that she could tear them into strips and crochet them into a rug.  Most important of all we had to guard the little red “Levi” tag, located in the stitching of our right back pocket.  If one of our miserable buddies snuck up behind and ripped the Levi tag off, we were automatically branded a dodo for life. 

        The professor’s talk about Levis was great, and I settled in for a fun read, until he shifted to talking about the new iPhone 6-plus and my intent to own one, thus outing me to Ann my wife while I was still in the process of denying that I had ever given any thought to such a purchase, while at the same time I was secretly trying to manipulate Ann into saying, ”Dear, I think you should buy yourself an iPhone 6-plus.  You really deserve one and I love to see you happy.”  So now my plan has been thwarted and Ann may never trust me again.  And so for having been outed, and because I consider myself to have been besmirched by my friend the professor, I have picked up the gauntlet he so heartlessly flung before me, and I am sharing with you, the reader, this rare glimpse into the differing worlds of an engineer and a math person. 

        First.  A math person would research the dimensions of phones equivalent in size to the iPhone 6-plus and then compare those dimensions to the size of the pants pockets with which he is familiar and calculate that the pockets will have to be increased in size for there to be any chance of the phone fitting the pocket.  An engineer, on the other hand, would build a model of the phone and then test the actual pants which he will be wearing, thus knowing the actual fit instead of assuming a fit based on a few numbers.  To demonstrate, I first built a cardboard model using the exact dimensions of an iPhone 6-plus.  I have included two pictures to demonstrate.  The first shows the phone-model being inserted into the side pocket of my pants.  The second photo shows the phone inserted all the way into the side pocket.  In the interest of full disclosure, my pants are Carharts, also known as pants for a real man.  It is obvious from this simple demonstration that I will not have to wait for the Levi retrofit jeans. 

        Second.  My friend the professor put together a model of what he referred to as a “must have” accessory for my new iPhone 6-plus, assuming that Ann ever lets me have one now that my friend the professor narc’d on me.  You will notice from the Unmuddled Mathematician’s photo that it is only a concept model which is held together with an assortment of every clamp he had in his garage, and it needs a lot of work by an engineer before it could ever be ready for use.  It looks, in fact, like the mathematical equation that my friend the math professor probably used to determine the configuration.  You remember such an equation from the interaction that you had with your own math professor as you struggled to avoid being flunked out of college. 

I suspect that your professor, like mine, would write an equation on the chalk board that contained everything in his symbol dictionary.  Like integrals and derivatives, curved brackets and square brackets, square root signs and power signs, function signs and imaginary number signs, and on and on.  When you asked him to explain it he likely countered with, “Well, I am going to leave this as an exercise for the student, and it is due first thing in the morning.”  And there you are.  Left to struggle on your own with an undecipherable set of hieroglyphics that needed to be solved before the sun rises the next morning. 

Luckily you now have an engineer to turn the undecipherable equation of the mathematician into a decipherable model for you to feel, test, and try out.  I have included a picture of the working prototype I created to elucidate your understanding of my friend the professor’s model.  You will also notice that the engineer’s prototype, unlike the mathematician’s model, provides all three elements of form, fit, and function needed to evaluate the usefulness of the device.  Please notice that the iPhone 6-plus nestles securely inside the holder and is protected completely with the lid closed, even if you sit on it.  Notice the industrial strength hinge that allows the lid to be opened to allow you to remove your iPhone 6-plus for use.  Notice the high strength fasteners I used in place of the mathematician’s clamps to hold everything together.  Notice also that I have used the finest piece of oak scrap I could find in my garage, meaning that you will only have to wear a two pound weight as a counter balance instead of ten pounds needed with my friend the professor’s model.  Finally, I have added a pencil holder especially for use by math professors during those times when they forget how to work their smart phone and need to write something down. 

        Now to my friend the professor, your move.  And to Ann, my wife, I am willing to forgo my purchase plans and suffer the rest of my life if that is what you want.  Unless, of course, you really want me to upgrade to an iPhone 6-plus and be the person I was meant to be.  In the meantime you will find me groveling at my computer.

Red Path of Fall

Photo by Carol Ann Dyer

North Rich Elementary honored nationally

NORTH RICH ELEMENTARY

Kip A Motta, Principal 

Karla Allen Administrative Assistant

U.S. Secretary of Education Announces 

2019 National Blue Ribbon Schools

9/26/19 U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos today recognized 362 schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2019. The recognition is based on a school's overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.

North Rich Elementary is recognized as one of three elementary schools in Utah to achieve this honor. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a video message to the honorees said, "As a National Blue Ribbon School, your school demonstrates what is possible when committed educators hold all students and staff to high standards and create vibrant, innovative cultures of teaching and learning, and we recognize the important work your school community does in preparing students for successful careers and meaningful lives."

The coveted National Blue Ribbon Schools award affirms the hard work of educators, families and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging and engaging content.

Now in its 37th year, the National Blue Ribbon Schools program has bestowed recognition on more than 9,000 schools. On Nov. 14 - 15, the Secretary and the Department of Education will celebrate with 312 public and 50 non-public school honorees at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The Department recognizes North Rich Elementary as an Exemplary High Performing School and is among their state's highest performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests.

Bear Lake Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau Report

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. September 19, 2019. Tammy Leonhardt, Bear Lake Valley Convention and Visitor Bureau, said that during the summer months more people came this year than last to go through the Wilford Wood house in Woodruff:  These were figures of the number of people who stopped for information and to learn more about this site.

              2018                           2019

     June        176                         578

     July         236                         702

     August    186                         723    

A grant has been given to the Tourist Bureau to be used for restoration of some logs and the roof on the Woodruff building before October 1, 2019.  It was noted that the building has about two to five years before more work would be needed. 

The count of individuals stopping at the Scenic Lookout near the top of Logan Canyon is as follows:

              2018                                2019

     June      5,411                            7,546

     July       7,637                            9,475

     August  7,946                           10,192

There are probably many more visitors that stop there than the above numbers reflect, these are the numbers of people who sign in.  The hours when the area is manned is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. seven days a week.  Water is a problem, when Sun Rise campground turns off the water, the Scenic Lookout’s water is also turned off.   This makes water problems with the toilets at the lookout.  To help, porta potties  were brought in this last Tuesday.  It is difficult to find out how to handle the water and solve the current problems.  Work is being done to try and solve the water problems.

There were 154 buses in June that called the City for information.  The Oregon Trail Center is also getting more business and more buses are stopping to use their facilities.

There are some groups who love to snowmobile.  They are attempting to come both before and after the regular season.  Thirteen billion dollars was spent in Utah from tourism.  This means this money will help each household so that they will need to pay less taxes.  It also helps the local businesses here in Garden City.

The area is getting more visitors from foreign countries and are also getting a lot more winter visitors.  There will be bunch of runners in the area soon for running and bicycle races.  FaceBook advertising is booming, and the Garden City Web Page is also helpful.

Fall Leaves

Photo by Linda Cook Shoss

Garden City Town Council Report

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

GARDEN CITY, Utah. September 19, 2019.  Lisa Duskin-Goede, who works for Bear River Heritage, gave a brief report to the City Council.  She had several handouts that she shared with the Council Members and told them that Rich County is in a heritage area.  She noted that she belongs to a sustainable organization that identifies and tries to save our heritage buildings and areas.  Bear River Heritage supports heritage areas and is attempting to get other heritage areas listed.  

She asked for the City Council’s support in attempting to save and enhance heritage areas and items.  She works on getting money to save and enhance heritage areas.  She gives out grants to make money grow.  She noted that there are web sites, pamphlets, brochures etc.  Currently $6,000 has been given to Rich County to save a cabin between Randolph and Woodruff. 

She noted that the three following towns in Rich County, Randolph, Woodruff, and Laketown all have documentary old homes (historic) that still exist.  They would make wonderful heritage areas where people could walk around and enjoy seeing an area of the town that is historic.

A request was made by Ephraim’s Location for a license to hold fruit sales at 300 W 150 S. This business is owned by Joe Weeks.  It would definitely be seasonal—available during summer and fall.  The motion was made and carried to give Weeks a license.

Bear Lake Laundry requested a license to conduct a commercial laundry facility for local residents and short-term rentals.  The request was made by Jared Hislop.  He said that he has the ability to clean 10,000 pounds a day of linens and towels.  The motion was made and passed to give Hislop a license.

The following short-term rental licenses were approved:

         Owner                 Address                  Property Management Co.

Brent Bramwell          55 W Buttercup Lane #27             
Legacy Beach Lodging, LLC

Nate Parry                  55 W Buttercup Lane #33             
Legacy Beach Lodging, LLC

Robert Taylor              283 W Season Lane #5                
Let’s Getaway Properties

Jason & Jennifer Prisco    287 W Season Lane #7C          
Let’s Getaway Properties

Colton Rich                       279 W Seasons Lane #9                
Vacasa

 

Ordinance #19-19, an ordinance updating the administrative code enforcement ordinance procedure was discussed. All changes were approved.  A motion was made to accept the ordinance with the changes.

Resolution #R19-03 is a resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Garden City to cancel the 2019 Municipal Election.  The two Council Members whose terms were ending said they would run in the election for another term.  However, no one else was interested in running.  Therefore, there was no need for an election.  The motion was made and passed to cancel the 2019 Municipal Election and have both Council Members remain in their current positions.

Resolution #R19-04 is a resolution updating the administrative code infraction fine schedule.  The Council Members went through the entire fine schedule one line at a time making suggestions and reasons for changes in the amount of the fees. The motion was then made and passed accepting the schedule with all of the suggested changes.

Garden City Staff Reports

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

GARDEN CITY, Utah. September 19, 2019. Two staff reports were made at the beginning of the meeting.  Glenn Gillies, Ordinance Enforcement, said that he has given out eight citations dealing with parking and fourteen parking warnings.  There were twelve warning on signage and right-of way problems.  There were two citations given for signage and right-of-way problems.  There has been one noise warning and two citations for after hours noise.

Short term rentals cannot advertise their units for more people than the number allowed.  Condos in Harbor Village do not have enough parking for as many people as they would like to allow into their area.  As a result, that area is being watched more closely as far as number of individuals and the parking situation.  One citation was given for water tampering.

People also need to be aware that there is a time limit on transient businesses, said Gillies.

The original Water’s Edge final plan has been approved.  They will begin building condos and occupancy and parking are both areas that will be carefully checked. 

Workers have started working on the LDS Church assembly hall and are roofing it at the present time.  They have determined that the building for overflow will be completed by next year.

A short term rental owner has a citation pending.  This owner has been warned and talked to but will probably get a citation as a last resort because of the numbers of people at that location.

The owners of condos at Harbor Village do not have the amount of parking that is required for more than eight people at a time.  They are asking for more parking, but the area is already crowded.

Many areas there can only handle two cars at a time.   Sometimes warnings are given by telephone calls.

Eight citations were given one evening because of motor bikes on the bike path.  There needs to be more signage placed on the bike path.  It was reported that some of the larger tamden bicycles that carry from four to six people are bumper to bumper along the bike path.  There are no good turn-outs for these tandem bicycles that have a top over them.  It is called a bike path, but there are many people who are walking and running on the bike path.  Perhaps the City needs to look into widening the path so more people can take advantage of it.

Ryley Argyle, Public Works, reported there are some water issues.  The water tank on Elk Ridge is tied into Harbor Village.  There needs to be more water on the south end. There are a lot of rocks in the area.  It might be necessary to put in a 24” line down the side of the Swan Creek road and then cross under Highway 89.  People will be given a notification a week in advance when the work is to be done.  It will take at least two full days to get the pipes in.  Those individuals effected will be all on the north end into Idaho. 

There is a a lot of rock in the Canyon.  Utilities there are a slow and go, and it will probably not be done until the middle of November.   It was noted that when the trenches are open, fiber optic could also be placed in the trenches which would save a second go in the future.

Lots of sand has been brought into Heritage Park and has been smoothed so that it is much nicer.

The beach bathrooms have been winterized, and five other bathrooms have also been winterized.  The park will be open for another two weeks and some porta potties have been put there.

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There has been more pond moss on the fishpond than in prior years at this time.  There won’t be any moss next year because the City has put in 20 pond sharks that are 6-feet long into the fishpond.  They only eat moss.  The pond sharks come out of Asia and are legal in the pond. They have a short life span and will be most helpful in getting rid of the moss.

The County plows Swan Creek Road back to Madsen’s home.  The City plows the rest of Swan Creek road back up to the water treatment plant.